Karl Rove is the Asshats of all Asshats

No one will ever be able to topple Karl "Turdblossom" Rove from his championship position of the asshat to beat all asshats. His constant attempts to rewrite the CheneyBush administration's history as a benign, gentle period of progress is a continuous blight on American culture. About a week ago, he placed an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal decrying the Democratic politicians' attacks on the CheneyBush record, in particular accusations that the CheneyBush administration lied about the WMD justification behind the Iraq invasion. If only he had led a counterattack against that wicked, wicked lie...

At the time, we in the Bush White House discussed responding but decided not to relitigate the past. That was wrong and my mistake: I should have insisted to the president that this was a dagger aimed at his administration's heart. What Democrats started seven years ago left us less united as a nation to confront foreign challenges and overcome America's enemies.

We know President Bush did not intentionally mislead the nation. Saddam Hussein was deposed and eventually hung for his crimes. Iraq is a democracy and an ally instead of an enemy of America. Al Qaeda suffered tremendous blows in the "land between the two rivers." But Democrats lost more than the election in 2004. In telling lie after lie, week after week, many lost their honor and blackened their reputations.

Unfortunately, our memories go deep, and the written record is pretty clear. On March 17, 2003, in a televised speech to the nation, President GW Bush stated:

Intelligence gathered by this and other goverments leaves no doubt that the Iraqi regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq's neighbors and against Iraq's people. The regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East. It has a deep hatred of America and our friends. And it has aided, trained, and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda. The danger is clear: using chemical, biological, or one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other. ... Saddam and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.

Always fun to note how the past administration used the term "WMD" instead of just "chemical weapons" when referring to Halabjah and the Iraq-Iran war. It's hard today to find senior defense officials who consider chemical weapons in the same phrase as "WMD." But of course, I don't expect any mainstream media talking head to call Turdblossom on his lies in this article. That would be contrary to their policy of "fair and balanced" reporting.

Comments

[Cheryl Rofer]

Hi J. -

I'm just wondering about this:

It's hard today to find senior defense officials who consider chemical weapons in the same phrase as "WMD."

Can you say more about that? I'm not challenging you, just finding it a very hopeful (and changeful) sign and wondering how it's happened.

[sheerahkahn]

Jay,
How much do you want to bet that Karl wants the Republicans to take over the Congress again, not for legislation or good governance of the nation, but rather to eliminate the one piece of evidence that shows he's not as clever as he thinks he is...that damnable speech.
A single order and voila, all written and electric copies of that speech...buh-bye.

[J.]

Cheryl - the current trend of thought (and this is bipartisan) is that chemical weapons are not effective, not in the same ball-park as lethal bio weapons and nukes, so we don't have to really worry about it. They seem to say, stop using the term "WMD" for chemical weapons, we don't even need a strategy to counter their use anymore. This flies in the face of decades of arms control talks and the fact that bioweapons have never been effectively used on the battlefield or in terrorist incidents, but chem has. Idiots. I don't find it "hopeful" at all.

sheerahkahn - I have no doubt that Rove is planning his White House office decorations for when the Repubs take over again. And yeah, then the fun will start on revising history.

[NVH]

The key word being "intentionally". According to you Bush was too dumb to do it on purpose. That's why Karl Rove and OFT guys in the Pentagon are to blame right? I'll buy the conservative argument that WMD wasn't the only reason, because it wasn't. Saddam got unlucky with his flip flopping ways and poor history of acting like a tinpot dictator. I don't disagree that our execution of the "War on Terror" had a significant amount of hiccups and we've learned, I hope, to tread a lot lighter, given our weak intelligence capabilities, but we were going to swing that stick sooner or later J. Personnally I'm glad it's not a DEM in office trying to do it. The way Obama is micromanaging this gig of his, disastrous. I can only imagine how detailed he gets getting his daily briefs on the number of terrorists shot at by his drones in Pakistan. He's using a tactical tool to try and win strategically, b/c the strategic stuff, meeting with Karzai and all his bubbas, with Hillary, talking ALL THE GOD DAMN TIME, ain't getting us anywhere. Pendulum is swinging back toward that peace dividend we wasted in the 90s not spreading our democracy in a more forceful manner. That got us Somalia, Khobar, the Cole, and that gig in Kosovo, oh wait, we're still there too. aHH, we could go all night